I have a server with a fresh install of Win 2k3 64 bit Enterprise Ed. with SP2. I copied the CD I used to install Windows onto the local drive and proceeded to install IIS from the configuration wizard. During the install it asks me for two files, which I direct the install to, and then it finishes its progress bar but I receive a "Cannot complete".

Now I've decided to uninstall IIS and reinstall use the Add/Remove components option in Add/Remove programs. I uninstall and reinstall IIS, it asks for the same two files and then it finally tells me it is complete! I go into services to see if the IIS service is running and it is not but when I try to start the service I get a Could Not Start the IIS Admin Service service on Local Computer. Error 2.

I've google searched Error 2 and it tells me to look for a file in the C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\history folder but the HISTORY folder is not present after install.

Anyone have any troubleshooting tips? I feel dead in the water at the moment :(

I copied the two XML files associated with MetaBase from another web server to see what would happen and the service actually tried to start but I got a service specific error. I'm googling it now...but it's obviously looking for the MetaBase file.

If anyone has had a similar situation where the Metabase file wasn't created on install I'd love to hear how you fixed it. Would save me the rest of the day having to Google....

Restoring without a backup on tape
But what if there are no metabase backups in your MetaBack folder and you don't even have a working backup on tape?

Here's a hack you can try that just might work: look in the inetsrv folder on your machine for files named metabase.bak or metabase.bin.bak. If you find one, you're in luck; this is a temporary metabase backup created by IIS when it has problems updating the metabase due to corruption. Normally, this temporary file is deleted once a successful metabase update is performed, but if your metabase corruption was caused by some interruption in the update process (a server glitch or hiccup), IIS might not yet have gotten around to deleting the temp file and you can use it to restore your configuration. Simply stop the services, rename metabase.bin to metabase.bad, rename metabase.bak to metabase.bin, and reboot the machine.

Reinstalling IIS
In the worst case scenario, you have no tape backup, nothing in the MetaBack directory, and no temporary .bak file in inetsrv. What do you do? Use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel to first uninstall IIS and then reinstall it. After you uninstall it, you should also check the %Systemroot%\System32\inetsrv folder (which is not deleted by the uninstall process) for a file named metabase.bin. If you find one, delete it before reinstalling IIS.

Have you run the Microsoft System File Checker (sfc.exe) to verify that none of your Windows system files are corrupt or possibly contributing to this issue?

I have not run it but I do not have a CD-ROM drive attached, or one available at the moment, to run SFC with and it won't let me point it to any other location.

RobertR32 wrote:

Here's a hack you can try that just might work: look in the inetsrv folder....

I have IIS uninstalled at this moment and there is nothing in the folder. Would I be okay to delete the entire folder?

RobertR32 wrote:

Reinstalling IIS
In the worst case scenario, you have no tape backup, nothing in the MetaBack directory, and no temporary .bak file in inetsrv. What do you do? Use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel to first uninstall IIS and then reinstall it. After you uninstall it, you should also check the %Systemroot%\System32\inetsrv folder (which is not deleted by the uninstall process) for a file named metabase.bin. If you find one, delete it before reinstalling IIS.

I've tried reinstalling numerous times from both a SP1 and SP2 CD and still no metadata file is creating.

It should be fine to delete that folder. Do you have it set to show hidden files? If not can you check to see if there are any hidden files before purging that directory? Have you run Windows Update to update your OS at this point, or are you still on the unpatched version? If you have not already run your updates I would do that. Have you midified the default Services configuration on this system? i.e. disabling services, or setting auto services to manual? I have a list here of necessary services for an IIS server. Please check to make sure your services are set correctly:

Required

Event Log

IIS Admin Service

License Logging Service

MSDTC

Protected Storage

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Service

Server

Windows NT Server or Windows NT Workstation

Windows NTLM Security Support Provider

Workstation

World Wide Web Publishing Service

May Be Required

Certificate Authority (required to issue certificates)

Content Index (required if using Index Server)

FTP Publishing Service (required if using FTP service; it's highly recommended that FTP and Web services run on different servers)

NNTP Service (required if using NNTP Service)

Plug and Play (recommended, but not required)

Remote Access Services (required if you use dial-up access)

RPC Locator (required if doing remote administration)

Server Service (can be disabled, but required to run User Manager)

SMTP Service (required if using SMTP Service)

Telephony Service (required if access is by dial-up connection)

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) (optional; but it is recommended that you use a UPS)